


A Fairytale Ending

by Marvel_Mania



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky Barnes Feels, Disney References, Fairy Tale Elements, Fluff and Slight Angst, M/M, Protective Steve Rogers, Teacher Bucky Barnes, True Love, slight angst with a happy ending, well-adjusted Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25061683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvel_Mania/pseuds/Marvel_Mania
Summary: Bucky is retired, he only goes on missions if there's an emergency. He's the safety net for the Avengers. He's a history teacher now and he loves his kids. Bucky lives with his amazing boyfriend, Steve, and he has more in life than he could have hoped for.After a mission goes south, Bucky ends up in an almost deathlike sleep. The team doesn't know what the chemical was that put him into the coma and they don't know how to wake him up.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 2
Kudos: 86





	A Fairytale Ending

**Author's Note:**

> So this ended up longer than I anticipated. I wrote this over the course of a few days with very little sleep. I hope you enjoy this, I had a lot of fun writing it. 
> 
> Thank you to my amazing friends for putting up with me even though I am a stressed, depressed mess. I love you guys so much. 
> 
> Enjoy!

As it turned out, Bucky liked sleeping. After some major therapy and the genius princess from Wakanda getting Hydra programming out of his head and the nightmares mostly stopped, he loved sleeping. The beds in this century had taken some getting used to but he liked sinking into them. He had thought it was a little weird at first. He had slept in cryo for nearly seventy years but he soon figured out that it wasn’t the same.

Sleeping in a bed, next to Steve, was nice. Not having to worry about a nosy neighbor seeing them in bed together and reporting them to the police was even better. Cryo has been cold, obviously, but in more ways than one. He didn’t dream while he had been frozen, simply being put in his box and the emerging a few years later at a different location with seemingly no time passing. He had been scared of that at first. He had been scared that he would go to sleep next to Steve and then wake up years later at a Hydra base as the asset.

While he had never actually told Steve this, Bucky suspected that he knew. He didn’t sleep as well when Steve was away on a mission and when he would get home Steve would always wrap Bucky in his arms tightly. The couch in particular was one of Bucky’s favorite places to sleep with Steve since there was barely enough room and Bucky had to practically lay on Steve for them to both fit.

Bucky often fell asleep with some sort of background noise. The television softly playing a cartoon or trashy reality show, the radio in another playing songs that Steve and Bucky had grown up to, the sound of pencil on paper as Steve sketched what was most likely Bucky, or the almost distant sounds of the city that never sleeps.

He loved his life, it was more than he could have asked for before the war and more than he could have believed or hoped for when he was the asset. He no longer went on missions unless it was needed, he was kind of like a safety net. He had taken time to get himself straight and then oddly enough he had become a teacher. He worked as an AP history teacher, ironically enough, at Peter’s high school. He even worked with Jim Morita’s grandson and that made him feel older than the teenagers did.

The media had gone crazy for a bit but Pepper had started suing people and getting restraining orders for him. Now the only harassment he had to deal with because of his job was from Tony and there was now no way in hell Peter would ever call him anything other than Mr. Barnes no matter how many times Bucky insisted that Peter call him Bucky when they weren’t in school.

Steve had absolutely beamed at him when Bucky told him he wanted to become a teacher. “You always were so good with kids, Bucky,” he had simply said and kissed him.

Bucky’s students liked him, he was honestly pretty cool. He didn’t really care if students were on their phones but it was known that if you were on your phone while he taught, he would let you sink when the tests came around. He wasn’t afraid to let a student fail if they weren’t willing to put forth an effort. He talked about his role in history (the students had a number of conspiracy theories that weren’t wrong but Bucky wasn’t allowed to confirm them because some were classified) and he had talked about Steve before the war. It was nice.

He had been grading papers while his students worked on the project that he had assigned when his phone went off, more specifically the Avengers text tone went off. No one paid him any mind. His phone went off a lot during class, Steve sometimes got really bored during debriefs, so his phone going off wasn't. new. It was one reason he was laid back about phones as long as he wasn’t actively teaching. He read the text calling an emergency assemble, Bucky included but not Peter, and he really didn’t want to but he also knew that he had to.

“Peter, come here for a moment,” he called in his teacher voice and all but three heads swiveled to either Peter or Bucky himself. “This doesn’t concern the entire class, get back to work.”

“Is everything okay, Mr. Barnes,” Peter asked but he at least wasn’t nervous.

He placed his phone face up on the table so Peter could read the text subtly. “I seem to be missing your paper on the reconstruction period after the civil war and how it may have gone differently if Lincoln had been alive to oversee it. I expect it first thing Monday morning,” he said pointedly. It was a real assignment form last week so no students would get too nosy but he was giving a pointed look at Peter.

“I can see if I left it in my locker if you need it now,” Peter said when Bucky picked up the phone again. Peter was smart and they had learned to talk in code.

“No, it isn’t that urgent. I have to leave early so Monday will do,” he said even as he sent a text to Principal Morita that an emergency had come up.

Peter nodded but he didn’t exactly look happy about it. Morita showed up less than a minute after the text had sent. Bucky stood and packed some of his things but he paused at the door. “A family emergency came up so I will be leaving. I expect to be back Monday but it maybe later. No matter when I come back, I had better not have a bad report from you lot or you will receive the hardest tests any high school student has ever taken and I will not tell you what it is on. Am I understood?”

The entire class looked slightly terrified. “Yes, Mr. Barnes,” they said in unison.

Steve was waiting on his motorcycle by the time Bucky got outside. ”Does Peter know about the situation,” Steve asked as Bucky pulled on the helmet and got on behind Steve.

“Yes, he was in my class when I got the text. He’s not happy about being left but it’s for the best,” Bucky said right before the bike had sped away from the school.

•••

The mission had gone south.

Someone at Stark Industries, an ex-employee by the name of Quentin Beck, had decided that Tony had screwed him over and had teamed up with one of the last Hydra bases to try to take over the world. Beck was smart, he had worked at Stark Industries after all, but he was by no means as smart as Tony Stark.

Beck and the Hydra agents had been winning briefly because Beck had some kind of reality-altering projection things, but Tony had managed to override Beck’s technology, it wasn’t exactly hard since they seemed to be cheap imitations of Stark Industries’ own technology, and shut them down. Steve and Bucky were the closest to Beck once the projections went down. In a last-ditch effort to either kill one of the Avengers or at least escape, Beck threw a sealed glass vial at Steve.

Seeing it, Bucky ran towards Steve and slammed into him hard enough to send Steve crashing into the opposite wall. Bucky had just enough time to let out a breath because he had gotten Steve out of the way before the glass vial was shattering at his feet. As soon as the vial broke, a green gas appeared and seemed to only surround Bucky.

The fighting paused as everyone stopped to watch as a thick cloud seemed to encase Bucky. Steve was frozen but a movement caught his eye. Beck had decided to try to escape as everyone was distracted. Steve simply threw his shield, knocking Beck out, and caught to rebound. The movement seemed to restart the fighting because soon everyone else was also moving. Steve simply wanted to get to Bucky but three Hydra goons had decided to try to block him.

By the time Steve and everyone else had taken out the Hydra agents, the thick green smoke had disappeared though there seemed to be the subtle scent of rotten apples in the air.

Bucky was lying on the ground with his eyes closed. They could all see the steady rise and fall of his chest and while it made them breathe just a little easier they were all worried. Steve dropped to his knees beside Bucky. “Buck. Bucky,” he said with one hand on Bucky’s shoulder to lightly nudge him. “Come on, Bucky, wake up.”

“Jarvis, vitals for Barnes,” Tony said after a tense minute had passed and Bucky’s eyes remained stubbornly closed.

“It appears that Sergeant Barnes is in no physical distress but is simply in a deep sleep,” Jarvis said.

“Why isn’t he waking up,” Steve asked almost frantically.

“J,” Tony said when Jarvis didn't respond.

“I can not be certain, Captain Rogers,” Jarvis replied, uselessly Steve thought but kept it to himself.

“Alright,” Tony said then paused to maybe think or collect his thoughts. “Is it safe to move him, J?”

“All of his vitals are stable but it is uncertain if they will remain that way if Sergeant Barnes is moved,” Jarvis said.

“Let me know if that changes.” Another pause. “I need all files you can find in this place. Wanda, find a clean bag or container and magic all of the glass pieces into whatever you find. No touching them. I’ll call Bruce and Cho for when we get back to the city. Steve, take Barnes back to the quinjet while we finish up here. Stay with him, you’re too wound up right now. Go go, move move.”

There was a moment when no one moved. Eventually, Steve repositioned his hands and position to be able to lift Bucky. After Steve was standing with Bucky in his arms, everyone else started moving. Steve didn’t pay much attention, just walking Bucky back to the quinjet. Once there, he gently laid Bucky down before lifting Bucky’s head and placing it in his lap. He gently carded his fingers through Bucky’s hair. It wasn’t as long as it had been when he was the Winter Soldier but it was shaggy enough for Steve to easily play with or pull.

They stayed like that, Bucky sleeping soundly and Steve running his fingers gently through Bucky’s hair, for a long time before anyone else joined them in the quinjet but Steve still didn’t move.

Everyone gave the pair space until they landed back in the city. Bruce and Helen Cho were waiting for them when they got there. Steve took Bucky to the medical floor of the tower and didn’t leave his side for nearly three days until Natasha and Sam stages an intervention.

•••

Bucky hadn’t woken up after a weak and no one was sure what the chemical that had put him to sleep even was. Everyone had been to visit him at least once. Peter came by every day after school to tell Bucky about class. Steve thought Bucky would have liked that if he could even hear them that is.

As the first week turned into the second, Steve went to Beck. “What did you throw,” he demanded as he slammed Beck into the wall.

“What,” Beck asked as Steve’s forearm pressed harshly on Beck’s windpipe.

“What gas did you throw at Bucky? How do we wake him up,” Steve growled.

“Don’t know. Can’t breathe,” Beck gasped out. Steve pressed harder.

“Who does know,” he asked without moving his forearm.

“Steve,” a soft voice came from behind them Steve knew it was Peter. Steve didn’t let go though. He wanted to keep pushing until Beck couldn’t breathe at all, until he stopped breathing permanently. “He wouldn’t want you to kill him.”

Steve knew that Peter was right. Beck was clawing at his arm and gasping for air. Thinking of Bucky and his soft blue eyes and kind smile, Steve finally released him. Beck dropped like a puppet who had its strings a cut. He dropped to the ground as he coughed and gasped for air.

“Who would know what chemical compounds were in that base,” Steve asked and there was a dangerous edge to his voice as if he didn't get the answer he was looking for, Beck wouldn’t be breathing anymore regardless of what Peter or anyone else said.

“Ian Quinn. He’s who funded this,” Beck gasped as if he sensed he was on thin ice.

Without another word, Steve left the room. He heard Peter close the door and then his footsteps as Peter tried to catch up. “Quinn is on the run and underground. What are you going to do to Quinn when you find him,” Peter asked when he did catch up.

“Make he talk,” Steve simply said.

“You know, I sometimes forget that you are the guy from my history book. You aren’t what is described. It mentioned how you could make enemies cower. I had never seen it before that but now I do,” Peter said almost absently.

“I won’t hesitate to do whatever it takes,” Steve said and that was the end of it. He had already lost Bucky once, he wasn't going to let it happen twice.

•••

Natasha was able to track Quinn down which wasn’t exactly surprising. It was just Steve and Natasha who went to get them.

Seeming to have known about their arrival, Quinn was waiting for them. “What’s the trick,” Steve asked wearily.

“No trick, dear Captain. I simply have no desire to become a super soldier’s punching bag,” Quinn said.

“You know why we’re here,” Natasha asked.

“I do. I saw what happened at the base through the security feed. I knew it was only a matter of time before someone broke. and told of my involvement.”

“How do we wake him up,” Steve asked.

Quinn then got a sickening smirk. “What costs nothing but is worth everything, weighs nothing but lasts a lifetime, that one person can't own but two can share,” he asked.

“Love,” Steve said after a pause to consider it.

“True love,” Quinn corrected.

“What does true love have to do with waking Barnes up,” Natasha said but Quinn just shook his head.

“I won’t be saying anymore,” he said.

Not exactly caring anymore, Steve strode over to Quinn and punched him squarely in the nose. It was hard enough to break his nose and knock him out. “At least roll him onto his side. We don’t want him drowning in his own blood,” Natasha said.

Steve simply nudged him with his foot until Quinn was in fact laying on his side with blood coming out of his nose. They did a quick check of Quinn’s home but found nothing important. They tired Quinn up and called Fury.

•••

Week four was especially hard. Bucky’s students had all come to visit him at least once each. Many brought flowers or cards or some sort of sweet. Two girls brought in a fifteen pound basket of candy and one of them had been a complete mess. “It’s all the candies we’ve shared with him during class this year, or well, he steals them but we don’t mind,” one had explained while crying.

No one knew how to wake Bucky up. Quinn’s clue of true love was meaningless to the scientists and doctors and no one else could figure out how true love was meant to help.

Steve hadn’t been on any missions since Quinn. If he wasn’t by Bucky’s side, he was in the gym. On more than one occasion, different members of the team had had to drag Steve out of Bucky’s medical room.

“Any new information,” Steve asked Tony when the genius came to check on him. Steve felt hallow in a way he hadn’t since he had gotten Bucky back.

“Sorry, Cap. No one has been able to make heads or tails of Quinn’s clue and we still don’t know what was in the vial. His condition hasn’t changed. There no way of knowing when or if he’ll wake up,” Tony said and rested a heavy hand on Steve’s shoulder.

“Can I, can we be alone for a moment,” Steve choked out.

“Of course, Cap.” When Tony left the room, Steve let himself cry for the first time since this had happened.

“Bucky, you have to wake up. The team needs you, your kids need you, we need you, I need you. It should be me. You saved me. You’ve been saving me since we were kids. I need you, you jerk. Please wake up. I love you.” Steve was openly crying. Loud, ugly sobs ripping themselves out of his chest. He was holding Bucky’s flesh hand in both of his.

Steve looked at Bucky’s face. He was peaceful. It really was as if he had been asleep. Steve had seen Bucky sleep so much in this century, he loved to nap, but this wasn’t natural. Steve stood and looked down at Bucky.

Slowly, he leaned down and gently kissed Bucky. It was a ghost of a kiss but as soon as Steve’s lips brushed against Bucky’s, Steve felt the grip on his hand tighten. Steve quickly pulled away in time to see Bucky’s eyes flutter open.

“Hey, Stevie,” he said and Steve was crying and laughing almost hysterically but he was smiling. “What did I miss?”

Steve didn’t answer, just held Bucky tighter. That was how Tony found them a few minutes later.

•••

It was a Friday when Bucky finally returns and he had missed his kids. He had read all of the cards and the team had already put a huge dent in all of the candy that they had brought him.

When Bucky walked into the classroom he was met with a cry of “Mr. Barnes,” and he couldn’t help but smile.

He sat his bag down and then opened his arms. “Alright,” he said and in the blink of an eye, he had a group of twenty teenagers hugging him.

It wasn’t the first time this had happened. His students worried about him when he went on the rare mission. After he had come back from his first mission after he started teaching, it was clear that he had been in a nasty fight. One girl had timidly asked if she could hug him and then all the students had joined in. Somehow all of his classes the following years knew so now it was a type of tradition.

Bucky was never the one to end the group hug and this one lasted a little longer than usual. Eventually off of his students returned to their seats while he sat on the spare desk at the front of the room.

“It’s been a rather emotional Friday morning and I don’t much feel like doing any actual teaching so let’s all just talk. I know you all visited me and I appreciate all the cards and gifts that everyone brought but I also know you must be curious. You can ask me any questions and I’ll answer them as honestly as I can but know that quite a bit is classified,” he said. This was also not new but it took longer than usual for the first question to be asked.

“What put you in the coma,” a girl finally asked.

“The Avengers were taking down a threat when one of the bad guys threw a sealed vial at Steve. I pushed him out of the way but the vial had broken before I could do anything else. Whatever was in the vial released a green smoke and then it went black. I woke up next to Steve at the tower.”

“Did you dream,” the boy next to Peter asked.

“Not quite. At times I could hear sounds but they were mostly distorted.”

“What was in the vial,” another asked.

“We aren’t sure,” Bucky replied honestly.

“How did the Avengers wake you up?”

Bucky paused at this one. It was no secret that he and Steve were together and had been since before the war but this was fairly intimate. “How about this? I’ll give you the clue that was given to the team. If you guess it correctly on the first try, I’ll tell you exactly how they woke me up. You may talk to each other but no phones. You must also come to a simple majority agreement with the answer. If not, I may tell you the truth but I may also lie. Deal?”

“Deal,” came in unison.

“What costs nothing but is worth everything, weighs nothing but lasts a lifetime, that one person can't own but two can share,” Bucky recited. Steve had bitched about being given a riddle for quite a while after Bucky had woken up.

Immediately all of the students started brainstorming. Bucky had Peter a pointed look and Peter gave a subtle nod. Bucky sat back and watched amusedly.

“Time, maybe,” someone said.

“That’s really good,” another agreed.

“The riddle had a lifetime in it. That seems odd if time is the answer,” someone else said.

Silence feel for a minute and Bucky was sure smoke was coming out if some of their ears as the gears in their brains tried to figure it out.

“Love,” MJ, Bucky was pretty sure she was one of Peter’s friends and he was also pretty sure that Peter was sweet on her, said at last. Coming up with no better answer, the class agreed.

“So is love your final answer,” Bucky asked with a smirk. MJ simply nodded and Bucky’s smirk turned into a smile. “I will accept love. I would also have accepted true love.”

“How did true love wake you up,” one girl asked. All of his students were at the edge of their seats.

“We aren’t exactly sure how it woke me up but Steve kissed me. I felt his lips brush mine and then I opened my eyes. His eyes were the first things I saw when I woke up,” he said almost wistfully.

A chorus of girls let out an “ _aww_ ” in unison. Bucky did have the sense to look embarrassed. He hadn’t planned on telling them that much even though he hadn’t actually said much. “It’s like a Disney movie,” one girl in particular said. She looked ready to swoon.

“Yeah, but which princes is Mr. Barnes,” someone teased.

“Sleeping Beauty, obviously.”

“He didn’t prick his finger on a spindle wheel. He was poisoned. He’s obviously Snow White,” someone countered.

Bucky kind of lost control of the class after that but he didn’t care. He listened fondly as his students debated whether he was Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. He sent a short video where the students could be heard debating. He didn’t get a response but he hadn’t entirely been expecting one. They were still debating when the bell rang their dismissal. Bucky suspected that there would be an impromptu debate with powerpoints and everything on Monday. He had missed his kids.

Bucky was still smiling fondly when he got to the tower. Steve was waiting for him when he got to their floor. “I got the video and it got me thinking,” Steve said as he pulled Bucky to him.

“You thinking? That’s never good,” Bucky teased lightly.

“We aren’t going to leave all weekend,” Steve said and took him to the living room area. There was a massive pillow and blanket fort and Bucky just smiled at Steve.

“I’m in love with a child,” he said fondly.

“You wouldn’t change it,” Steve said and lightly kissed Bucky. “Go shower and change into something more comfortable. I’ll order more takeout than either of us can eat and I reckon we can finish off the snacks your kids got you.” Bucky did what Steve said all with a smile still on his face.

True to their plans, the two didn’t leave their floor for the entire weekend as they binge-watched the majority of Disney movies not for the first time. He knew that his and Steve’s lives weren’t like Disney movies, things didn’t always wrap up as neatly as either of them would sometimes like.

Even with their crazy lives, Bucky was happy because he had found his happily ever after in Steve’s arms and Steve had found his in Bucky’s. That was all either of them could really ask for.


End file.
